Newsletter

Grand jury indicts shooting suspects

A Juneau grand jury has indicted four people in connection to a pair of drug-related shootings that took place earlier this month at a Mendenhall Valley apartment complex and on Egan Drive.

The indictments were issued Friday against James Depasquale III, 45, Jerall N. Torres, 24, Kenneth Ketah Jr., 33 and Steven D. Thomas, 32. The codefendants are slated to be arraigned in Juneau Superior Court later this week.

No one was killed or critically injured in the shootings. Prosecutors said Depasquale and Ketah confronted Torres at the Coho Park Apartments on Dec. 6 for not selling the heroin Depasquale gave him. Torres claims he shot Depasquale after he was hit and threatened by a gun.

Ketah and Thomas are accused of then shooting at Torres and two passengers in a moving vehicle on Egan Drive several hours later. Torres later admitted to police he returned fire.

For more on this story, check out the Tuesday, Dec. 17 edition of the Juneau Empire.